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His Majesty, The Scarecrow Of Oz
His Majesty, The Scarecrow Of Oz is a 1914 silent five-reel film, directed by J. Farrell MacDonald and written and produced by L. Frank Baum. The film is loosely based on Baum's book The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, but in the screenplay Baum introduced many new characters and a large new story that later became the basis for the 1915 book, The Scarecrow Of Oz. Plot King Krewl is a cruel dictator in the emerald city in the land of Oz. He wishes to marry his daughter, princess Gloria, to an old courtier named Googly-Goo, but she is in love with Pon, the gardener's boy. Krewl employs the wicked witch named Mombi, to freeze the heart of Gloria so she will not love Pon any longer. This she does by pulling out her heart which looks somewhere between a valentine and a bland representation of a heart without any vessels and coating it with ice. Meanwhile, a lost little girl from Kansas named Dorothy Gale is captured by Mombi and imprisoned in her castle. However, Dorothy runs away with the now heartless Gloria, accompanied by Pon and eventually meet the scarecrow. Mombi catches up with the travelers and removes the scarecrow's stuffing, but Dorothy and Pon are able to re-stuff him, as Gloria makes a malevolent stare directly at Dorothy, Pon, and the scarecrow, just before she abandons them and wanders off. They meet the lost little boy, Button-Bright and travel to the winkie country next and arrive at the tin castle of the tin woodman who has rusted solid. Mombi reaches the tin castle, and the tin woodman chops off her head, however, this merely slows her down as she hunts for it and places it back on. Having replaced her head, Mombi encounters Pon and turns him into a kangaroo. Dorothy, Button-Bright, the scarecrow and the tin woodman escape from Mombi by crossing a river on a raft, as the scarecrow's barge-pole gets stuck in the river bed and leaves him stranded, until he is rescued by a bird. Before the scarecrow is rescued, he slides down the pole into the river, where he sees fish and a mermaid. The party encounters the wizard who tricks Mombi by letting the group hide in the red wagon, pulled by the sawhorse; when Mombi attempts to follow them, the group escape out the back of the wagon. The four companions meet the cowardly lion who joins them. The wizard traps Mombi in a container of "preserved sandwitches" and paints out the word "sand" and the plural, carrying her away in his pocket. The scarecrow takes a barrage of arrows and tosses Krewl's soldiers over the battlements to deal with the cowardly lion who cannot climb the rope ladder over the city wall. With the support of the people, the scarecrow is easily able to depose king Krewl. The wizard releases Mombi and compels her to restore Pon to his normal form and unfreeze Gloria's heart. Cast of characters Violet MacMillan as Dorothy Gale Frank Moore as the scarecrow Pierre Couderc as the tin woodman Fred Woodward as the cowardly lion Raymond Russell as King Krewl Arthur Smollet as Googly-Goo J. Charles Haydon as the wizard of Oz Todd Wright as Pon Vivian Reed as Princess Gloria Mai Wells as Old Mombi Mildred Harris as Button-Bright Trivia Violet MacMillan was 29-years-old when she played the role of the "little girl" Dorothy in this film. The scarecrow's origin is revealed, although his life is now attributed to "the spirit of the corn" who appears as a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image of a conventional Hollywood depiction of a Native American. The tin woodman is found rusted stiff and oiled, but he is already emperor of the winkies. Mombi looks like W.W. Denslow's depiction of the wicked witch of the west, who seems to resemble more than a little like the great Margaret Hamilton. The cowardly lion is encountered only briefly. Category:The Wizard Of Oz Category:Movies